First Brew Day - cooling question

[dakubica]

So I have my first brew day on the 11th with the Caribou Slobber from NB. I am planning ahead here and was wondering the best way to cool the wort. The brew pot I have will not fit into the kitchen sink so I am thinking about either setting it outside in the cold (45 degrees) or maybe the bathtub. The other option I had in my mind was to go to Home Depot and get a large plastic tub (3ft in diameter) for this.

Thoughts?

 

[freisste]

Plastic tub (filled with cold water) will go much faster than just setting it outside.

 

[cheesehed007]

I'd go for the large tub and use a nice bath. Good luck, and cheers!

 

[Painter]

I use the large tub with ice water method and it works just fine. I have cooled in the sink, but it wasn't significantly faster.

 

[pumpkinman2012]

Any chance of getting a wort chiller?

 

[aarong]

Build your own wort chiller it's very easy and will cost you close to the amount as the tub from homedepot.

 

[RM-MN]

So I have my first brew day on the 11th with the Caribou Slobber from NB. I am planning ahead here and was wondering the best way to cool the wort. The brew pot I have will not fit into the kitchen sink so I am thinking about either setting it outside in the cold (45 degrees) or maybe the bathtub. The other option I had in my mind was to go to Home Depot and get a large plastic tub (3ft in diameter) for this.

Thoughts?

I might get acceptably quick cooling by setting my wort outside at -30 but your +45 is hardly considered cool here. Heat transfer to air is pretty slow, heat transfer by being immersed in water is waaay faster. You will have to change out the water because your water in the tub will get quite warm as it cools the wort and the wort won't cool very fast then. Adding ice will help a lot but it takes quite a bit of ice melting to change the wort from boiling to 60 degrees.

 

[freisste]

Build your own wort chiller it's very easy and will cost you close to the amount as the tub from homedepot.

We obviously have different sources of copper tubing. I'm not saying someone should not build his own immersion chiller, but to say it is roughly the cost of a $7 tub is absurd.

 

[Riot]

Use the tub and save the ice until its under 120. It will cool quickly with tap water at first, it's the last 30-40 degrees that take the most time.

 

[aarong]

It's about $24.00 for the 20ft of the tubing. http://m.homedepot.com/p/Unbranded-...t-Refrigeration-Coil-Pipe-D-06020PS/202287075

So it's about 17 bucks more which in my opinion is worth it. I tried the tub method and it's a pita. Just my two cents.

 

[freisste]

It's about $24.00 for the 20ft of the tubing. http://m.homedepot.com/p/Unbranded-3-8-in-x-20-ft-Copper-Soft-Refrigeration-Coil-Pipe-D-06020PS/202287075 So it's about 17 bucks more which in my opinion is worth it. I tried the tub method and it's a pita. Just my two cents.

I agree that it's better, just not that 4x the price is equivalent (I was also including tubing and fittings because I don't like attaching vinyl to copper without barbs, etc.). Again, I'm all for an immersion chiller. I guess in the end it isn't a particularly large disparity anyway.

 

[Spawn2qc]

I leave in Canada so I just put the brew pot in the snow hehe we must have at least an advantage. You really need to cool that wort as quick as possible so the wort chiller is the best thing for you.

I use immersion wort chiller like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcLmROP-LfY

You just need to put it in the hot wort for the last boiling minute to sanitize it.

OR

You can build a counterflow wort chiller which is lot more trouble to do and more expensive. You must be sure that the final temperature is ok or rerun it in the wort chiller.

OR

buy a plate chiller which is more expensive and jam with the hop